Avoid the Hazards of a Duplicate Revit Level with Ideate XRay

If you’ve ever stared long and hard at a section or elevation view in Revit, willing an invisible level line to present itself, then this is the blog post for you.

I’ll be the first to admit it, I’ve done this. I’ve created a duplicate level line…I’m so sorry! I didn’t realize by creating two level lines, at the exact same height, I was:

Creating a host of visibility issues, because now the View Range for “Level Above” is unexpectedly 0, making a mess of many views

Making it impossible to delete my rogue level because since I created it, several others in the project have created new views based on this level, and it’s not possible to modify the “Associated Level” assignment for a view

Producing the very real possibility that many views will be unwittingly deleted

Read on to avoid the wrath of the model manager and learn how to force the level line to appear in your section or elevation view.

In the image at the top of this post, the North Elevation view, is missing a level line as indicated by the dashed red line. While there are several reasons for its invisibility, the most befuddling reason is that the level line is a 3D plane, and that plane does not currently intersect the extents of the North Elevation. The trick is to find a perpendicular view (East or West elevation) where the level line can be seen.

In the image of the Plan View above, you can see the extents of the 3D Level line (shaded in orange) does not intersect the area representing the North Elevation. By grip-editing the 3D extents of the level line, you should be able to fix the issue, as shown below.

Ideate XRay is a tool within the IdeateApps collection that helps find and resolve visibility issues, including this level line conundrum. You can download the trial version of IdeateApps here. Imagine not needing to remember the 50+ reasons why a Revit element might be invisible.

About the Author

Glynnis Patterson, NCARB — Director of Software Development
Glynnis is a Registered Architect and has worked within the BIM industry since 1998. A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, she has worked as an architect, educator and construction site manager. Glynnis is currently the Director of Software Development at Ideate Software, and she continues to work with AEC clients worldwide, developing, and consulting on solutions to Building Information Modeling challenges. In her spare time Glynnis does volunteer work for ECLC of NJ and Grow it Green Morristown. Follow Glynnis on Twitter.

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